[beta]Book of Mages: The Dark Times

im sorry imm prob getting anoying now =P when you defeat iceroot when you look for traitor when you get antidote and kill the traitor and go back to poision water magic master it says

hawklight was with iceroot of ice land when i found him so i killed him and [bring him] head back to you
[brought him]
it sounds better soz if im getting anoying

mmmaaatttsss
18 posts

April 5, 2010, 5:54 pm

I have played this game probably around 30 times. It's such an awesome game!!!!!

liamiscool6
68 posts

April 5, 2010, 7:24 pm

i play too much =D

shuwan
218 posts

April 9, 2010, 6:13 am

Hi everyone, thanks for helping out beta testing the game :) Just updated the game,
fix typos(thanks liamiscool6)
(ice) freeze attack won't reduce special points
(ice) freeze death only cost 125 mana
(chaos) Burn requires mana 60(originally 20)
reputation bug from recruiting black robe mages
A "notable mages" section to thank all beta testers. Let me know if i missed out your nick, or you want to be listed with another name~

mmmaaatttsss- we are working on a few games right now. There is this action game where you play as UFO, coming to destroy the earth. Will put it up for beta soon.

sloomer555- There are thousands lines of dialog :) I guess only AAA titles like Baldur's gate or fallout 3 can afford voice narration. Hopefully I'll have more budget for bom3, haha.

elwin555- I'll make the game longer for bom3, which will be finished perhaps 3 years later? lol. RPG takes the longest time to develop comparing to other genres.

zaorish- Thanks for your suggestion! I agree totally that acknowledgment is important. I'll edit the final battle dialog(might take some time).

mmmaaatttsss
18 posts

April 10, 2010, 7:44 pm

Thanks Shuwan. By the way, is the time on the top of each post correct? If it isn't please fix it

valentyne
78 posts

April 10, 2010, 7:58 pm

Been a while since I last posted or played.I check the comments every day, though.Anyway, idk why, but I never try to be number 1 in the BoM.There isn't really anything that pushes you to it.If I make a game to become #1, then I will try, but otherwise, no reason to, not really.

ff1985hk
11 posts

April 12, 2010, 12:32 pm

This game is very very amazing. I have played for about 20 times and I am focused on the game balance. Here is some of my opinions.

1) Sea water mages can never beat a dark wood mage who gets lots of mana (and if he uses Si and IS only), unless with very plentiful of blood. However, sea water mages need the most number of skill points to advance, which make it virtually impossible; Balancing may be needed (though I think they have no problems facing any others at all);

2) For ice water mages, I can cheat by first press HA/LA, then freeze effects then freeze defend; by then, I can hit the opponent with 10 bolts with freeze effects. By this, I can then kill any mages with instant kills easily; (not sure if it is fixed now, but with this cheat, it is easy to play ice mages)

3) For poison water mages, if I face another poison water mage, it easily happens that we just cast poison waves all the time (unless C is chosen). Maybe same for sea water mages' mana leak too. Honestly, if that happens, that would be boring;

4) I am not too used to poison water mages and dark wood mages, but they look to be alright; burning hill is really hard to play with, in my opinion;

5) Chaos desert mages are too strong!!

ratatoesk
2 posts

April 13, 2010, 11:46 pm

Hi there!

First i have to apologize my bad english. Iam german and presently i have no opinion to write or speak english very often.

In my opinion, this game is really great and a worthy sequel to the first part of "Book of Mages". I played it with every kind of mage, played the evil paths, neutral paths and the good variant. I managed to became great mage with any one of my characters except the Burning Hill-guy, no matter if i played him evil or good.

So i decided to write down some suggestions i'd like to make without having read the other comments.

1. Assuming that the current state of the game would be the final release, the magic master of Dark Wood should be nerfed in some way. I was able to beat every NPC in game with any kind of character. The one big exception are my Burning Hill-characters, who had no chance against the powerful magic master of Dark Wood, a very effective defense-specialist with a huge amount of mana.
I have NOT tried, to use this combined power thing from the high magic set. I NEVER used this power with any of my characters so i think, this can and may not be the solution.
On the other hand, i do NOT think, that the Burning Hill-Clan is underpowered. As i mentioned above, all the other confrontations with NPC's have been doable.

Suggestion: magic masters amount of mana should be lowered drastically, at least 200 points, i would say.

2. I have a problem with some powers, which alternate the combatorder. For example: The ATTACKER uses the power "Silence" of the Dark Wood-Set. The result is, besides the essential effect of the power, that the DEFENDER is "violently" pushed into the attacker-position, without a chance to act as a defender. Thus, many powers got more useless or harder to use compared with others.

ratatoesk
2 posts

April 13, 2010, 11:48 pm

- Part 2 -

Suggestion: DEFENDER should become the opportunity to cast a special ability by himself. In case of "Mana Shield" or similar powers, their effects should last until the definding mage becomes a defender AGAIN! Exception to that rule: In his attackphase, the mage may not cast a spell or the resistent power will vanish immediatly.
And yes, that implies the possibility NOT to attack (or regenerate mana)

Please note, that this suggestion just could be functional if mana-costs and other factors of some powers would be changed.

ratatoesk
2 posts

April 13, 2010, 11:57 pm

- Part 3 -

3. More tactical depth by following factors:

a) Higher weight on the "power"-attribute: The mana-costs for bolts raise with their number AND their power. But if a bolt with power 10 hits another bolt with power 1, they neutralize each other. I would like to see my mages cast their powerful bolts and blast through the tyni wannabe-spells of unexperienced opponents to hit them straight in their face.
How could it look like: If a bolt has a higher powervalue than another ATTACK-bolt, it burns through the weaker one and hits the target with the powerdifference.
Example: A bolt with power 8 hits on another bolt with power 5, the first bolt burns the second one away and hits the mage with a powerlevel of 3.

A similar principle could be used, when a bolt hits a DEFENSE-bolt, but the defensive bolts should be more effective. A stronger ATTACK-bolt would still burn the defensive bolt away, but would be less powerful. The remaining power of the bolt would be halved (rounded down).
Example: A bolt with power 8 hits a DEFENSE-bolt with power 5, burns it away and hits the mage. In this case, the remaining power of the bolt is only 1 (8 - 5 = 3; 3 / 2 = 1,5, rounded down to 1)

b) Mages should have the opportunity to regulate the number of bolts (attack and defence) AND the powerlevel of their bolts.

c) The powerlevel of bolts should NOT be visible. The ressource-management (lifepoints and mana) would be more tactical and not knowing, what the opponent is going to do would make the battles really thrilling.

So, these are my suggestions. I hope, i was able to explain my thoughts and intentions in an accurate manner.

Greetings

Ratatoesk:-)

shuwan
218 posts

April 14, 2010, 2:17 pm

Hi guys,
mmmaaatttsss, I think the time zone is south-east asia time zone(where our server is located)

valentyne, you are right about that. I add in some new dialog for final battle based on zaorish and valentyne's feedback. It's not much but at least they know you are top 10 or "the number one mage". And you'll be able to skip some fight for Final battle.

ff1985hk: Thanks for your suggestion! I made some adjustments based on your comment.
Now enemy Dark Wood mages only have 50% chances of casting Silence.
For ice land mage, I make it possible to cast Freeze Effect with Freeze Defend, however Freeze Defend requires 30 special points instead of 20.

ratatoesk: Thanks for your suggestion! I made some changes to address the problems you brought up.
Now Dark Wood mages only have 50% chances of casting Silence.
Part 2: Good suggestion! But it will make some magic off balance as well and I'll need to retest everything :) So my solution is to make Mana Shield more powerful:Mana Shield absorbs 2 damage instead of 1.
Part 3: Good suggestion as well! At first when I was making the game it works similar to what you described, but it makes "clan special" skills less important, and makes "power" too important. This system is now used in Combined Power. If you use Combined Power, you'll realize it calculates power instead of bolts, like what you suggested in part 3! Combined Power is best spell for Burning Hill mages, especially if you use it with Mana Attack(5th clan magic).

Quite a few suggested to allow players adjust the power/bolts to save mana as well, I agree it will make the game very interesting, but it will also make the already complicated gameplay even more complex :)

Changes to AI: Sea Water Mages and Poison Water Mages has only 50% chances of casting Mana Wave/Poison Wave if you are capable of casting the same magic. Dark Wood Mages has only 50% chances of casting Silence.

New Dialog for final battle if you are top 1 or top 10 in book of mages. Able to skip some fights.

valentyne
78 posts

April 15, 2010, 12:57 am

Thanks so much for the recognition, Shuwan. I am truly honored. THAT IS ALL!

ff1985hk
11 posts

April 16, 2010, 11:46 am

Thanks for the recognition too, I have forgotten one thing to add: Mageblood, the mage from dark wood who is impossible to win before young mage contest, is casting a blood bath of 50hp. Does it need to change back to 30hp?

Besides, the computer seem not knowing to cast freeze effects + freeze attack at the same time. Maybe it will be more fair to let them do so?

I don't know if ice mage is still too powerful or not (most of the time it is hard to beat an ice mage, to me, though far from impossible), but if it is, I would suggest to swap the positions of freeze defend and regenerate, in order to make ice mage wait longer to cast freeze defend.

shuwan
218 posts

April 16, 2010, 2:39 pm

Hi ff1985hk.
Yes You are supposed to lose to Mageblood. Even if you win(which shouldn't happen), the story goes on as if you lose.
I didn't let AI cast freeze effects + freeze attack for the same reason, they'll be too strong~ Defensive mages won't stand a chance against ice mages. I think if we swap freeze defend and regenerate. player won't be able to win some mages that reduce your special points(eg Chaos mages). I am not sure if regenerate seems useless though... Didn't really use it in my last few testings.

mnakai
1 posts

April 16, 2010, 2:55 pm

great game! But maybe you could do almost an "open world" type game after someone beats the game.

ff1985hk
11 posts

April 16, 2010, 4:50 pm

Hi Shuwan,

I know your point abut Mageblood, but it just looks weird to me if all other dark mages can only do 30hp while one "super" mage can do 50hp, but it really doesn't matter, yeah;

I think regenerate can be used in this sequence: freeze defend, freeze attack(or other defend), regenerate, freeze attack(or other defend) --- or something similar. It can be used for ice mages to get time to regenerate SP and mana needed to cast those mana-consuming spells; but i think you are right; after switching, it may stand no chance again chaos mages.

By the way, I just played Burning hill white mage, now burning hill becomes very very easy and comfortable to play with (get to invincible right after prison rescue), after the mana-shield change. Dunno if the change made it too powerful?

kkpie5
1 posts

April 18, 2010, 1:41 pm

Very good, much better than the first one after you get used to the differences. My only problem so far is that sometimes the skill descriptions are sometimes hard to understand.

orochi
3 posts

April 18, 2010, 3:54 pm

It is too hard to beat the chaos desert mages with poison water or with chaos desert mage too because they decrease your special and you can do nothing after, and their special come to 100 and yours to 0 ... I think you should decrease the special that they take away because they have more bolts than you ...
The only way to kill them is to have a lot of hp and to wait when they will have few mana to Counter Attack.

orochi
3 posts

April 18, 2010, 3:59 pm

I lose 5 specials when one bolt when they touch me, and they have 5 more than you when they have 40special.
But the game is very good, better than the other, the goal of the first was to burn the mana of the ennemy.